Scoble and
Chris
have blogged their support for homosexual marriage, so here’s my +1.
Unlike Chris, I’ve known quite a few homosexuals in my life. Several of
my best friends (as in, would seriously consider donating a kidney to
kind of friends) are gay. I grew up hanging around the theater world
where homosexuality is much more pervasive (and accepted) than
“mainstream” society. I used to have a bunch of friends on a gay hockey
team (it sounds cliché, but they were called the Gay Blades). And this
past summer, my wife, our then-six-month-old son and I went to Victoria,
Canada to see my two uncles get married after a lifetime of commitment
to each other.
As part of the ceremony, my uncle told me how much my involvement in his
life has meant to him and husband. I wasn’t told that he was gay until I
was going to college at USC, which was about an hour drive from my
uncle’s home. For reasons they would have to explain, my parents didn’t
tell me until then. When my mother finally told me my uncle was gay, she
was in tears, so I naturally assumed he had AIDS and was dying. I mean,
why else would she be crying? He wasn’t dying, she was just worried how
I would react. As far as I was and still am concerned, being gay doesn’t
change anything. Since I couldn’t fly back to the east coast for long
weekends, I got to spend them with my uncles instead. I don’t get to see
them as often as I did back then, though they have come up to see us
twice since my son was born. But they will always be a major part of my
life and I will be forever honored that they asked me and my family to
be a part of their wedding.
I’m a huge Bill Maher fan and I only just
recently discovered Real Time. He
talked about gay marriage in the Valentine’s Day edition of his New
Rules. As a
Democrat, it really struck a cord with me.
Republicans used to be the party that opposed social engineering. But
now they push programs to outlaw marriage for some people and
encourage it for others. If you’re straight, there’s a billion-five in
the budget to promote marriage, but gay marriage is opposed because it
threatens or mocks or does something to the “sanctity” of marriage, as
if anything you can do in Vegas, drunk off your ass in front of an
Elvis impersonator, could be considered sacred.
But at least the right wing aren’t hypocrites on this issue. They
really believe that homosexuality is an abomination and a dysfunction
that’s curable…But I have to tell you, the greater shame in this story
goes to the Democrats, because they don’t believe homosexuality is an
abomination. And therefore, their refusal to endorse gay marriage is
hypocrisy. Their position doesn’t come from the Bible. It’s ripped
right from the latest poll, which says most Americans are against gay
marriage.
Well, you know what? Sometimes most Americans are just wrong. And
where is the Democrat who will stand up and go beyond the half
measures of “civil union” and “hate the sin, love the sinner” and say
loud and clear, “There is no sin; it’s not an abomination and no one
can control how cupid aims his arrows.”
I’m not running for office, but I’ll say it: Homosexuality isn’t a sin,
an abomination or wrong. Letting homosexuals get married isn’t going to
weaken society, change the most fundamental institution of civilization,
cause the sky to fall or any of the other things that Bush
claims
it will cause. Legislating discrimination however, which is what Bush’s
proposed amendment to the Constitution amounts to, actually will weaken
society and change what is really the most fundamental institution of
civilization: freedom.
Bush certainly talks a lot about freedom when he’s trying to justify the
invasion liberation of Iraq. However, in calling for a amendment to
outlaw gay
marriage,
the only reference to freedom was when he said that “commitment of
freedom…does not require the redefinition of one of our most basic
social institutions.” Actually, when these “basic social institutions”
are inherently discriminatory – take slavery and women’s lack of right
to vote as examples – it is absolutely required that we redefine them to
eliminate the discrimination. Otherwise, we become the kind of a
fascist
society
that our founding fathers were trying to avoid when they wrote the
Constitution
in the first place. That’s what establishing Justice, insuring domestic
Tranquility and securing the Blessings of Liberty is all about.